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EFCI News – Issue 16| April 2021
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EFCI News - Issue 16
THE EFCI JOINS THE MULTI-SECTORAL GUIDELINES ON THIRD-PARTY VIOLENCE
On 19 April and during the Sectoral Social Dialogue Committee, the EFCI announced its engagement with the Multi-sectoral guidelines on third party violence and harassment related to work. Originally adopted in 2010, the aim of the Guidelines is to ensure that each workplace has a results-oriented policy which addresses the issue of third-party violence. In particular, the document proposes a list of the many forms that third-party violence can take, from ‘disrespect, to more serious threats and physical assault’ to ‘criminal offences’ or even ‘cyber-bullying/cyber-harassment’.
The Guidelines set out the practical steps that can be taken by employers, workers and their representatives to reduce, prevent and mitigate problems. The recommendations are based on the results of several conferences, exchanges of best practices and studies, such as that carried by UNI-Europa and EPSU in 2009 (the results of which are set out in a report entitled ‘Policies, strategies and implementation: How issues of third-party violence have been tackled in practice by social partners in the commerce, hospital, private security and local and regional government sectors’).
The signature of the Guidelines responds to EFCI’s commitment to guaranteeing the well-being of the workers in the sector and will serve as an umbrella for EFCI members’ activities on the topic. The signature of the document is an important step for the sector in its contribution to the SDGs and ahead of the Commission´s new Gender Equality Strategy, expected by the end 2021.
EFCI’S PRESIDENT PARTICIPATED TO OPEN CLEANING DAY
Juan Díez de los Ríos (EFCI’s President)
On 23 April, EFCI’s President Juan Diez de los Ríos participated to the Open Cleaning Day organized by Borrmart Eventos where he presented EFCI’s views on the future of the cleaning sector.
After introducing the latest data available on the sector (based on EFCI’s annual reports) and announcing that the EFCI is working in the upcoming edition of the report, which will also include a focus on the impact of COVID-19 on the sector, he provided a few hints on the latter.
He stressed that the sector has been directly hit by the negative economic impact of the containment measures, which led to a reduction in services to offices and public facilities. At the same time, the President stated the pandemic has determined an increase in disinfection services and a greater use of new technologies and digitization. For this reason, in the future, greater attention will be paid to digitization and sustainability. In this context, he presented EFCI’s engagement to the United Nation’s SDGs, which will be a reference for EFCI and its members activities to support the sector in the green and digital transitions.
Further, he provided an overview of the ambitious European Pillar of Social Rights and the measures that the Commission will announce on its basis. Within this ambitious policy objectives, he explained EFCI’s vision of how the sector is and will continue to be a vector for integration into the labour market. Indeed, the cleaning and facility services sector is key for:
- The integration of young people into the labour market;
- The fight against undeclared work;
- Providing employment to workers with transferable skills coming from sectors hardly hit by the Covid-19 outbreak;
- Providing training in fundamental sector-related skills, essential also for basic re and up-skilling;
- The creation of flexible jobs.
EFCI’s President concluded by reiterating the commitment of the EFCI with the advancement of the sector and contribution to the European recovery.
SECTORAL SOCIAL DIALOGUE DEVOTED TO HEALTH AND SAFETY AND PROCUREMENT
SECTORAL SOCIAL DIALOGUE DEVOTED TO HEALTH AND SAFETY AND PROCUREMENT
On 19 April, the EFCI and UNI Europa came together for an online Sectoral Social Dialogue Committee meeting with a special focus on public procurement. The meeting was opened with an exchange on health and safety focused on the Commission’s ongoing work on a legislative proposal on sexual harassment in the workplace, with a presentation by Martin Törnkvist, Policy Officer at DG Justice.
Following this presentation, Jenela Miloš, Project Coordinator at UNI Europa, presented the current work on the ratification of the convention at national level. In this sense UNI Europa launched a campaign informing on key points and best practices of the convention which also tackled domestic violence. The second phase of the campaign has focused on mental wellbeing, especially during the COVID 19 pandemic
Importantly, the EFCI took this opportunity to announce its engagement with the Multi-sectoral guidelines on third party violence at work.
Further the EFCI and UNI Europa held a constructive discussion on public procurement on the basis of the Social Partners’ presentations on their respective initiatives and advancements on the topic, in particular on how to further promote quality-based tendering and purchasing of cleaning services. In this context, Isabel Yglesias presented EFCI’s recent work on public procurement. Firstly, she introduced EFCI’s activities as a member of EBSA, alliance which has a priority the change towards quality base public procurement in the services sectors in Europe. In particular, Isabel presented EBSA’s joint statement from May 2020, on good contracting practices during Covid-19 and EBSA’s online seminar “Public procurement in the EU: the road forward” from October 2020. Further, Isabel Yglesias presented the main points of the upcoming document EFCI recommendations for quality-based tendering, which will be published in the coming months and which are based in the work of EFCI members on the topic.